Explainer-Jimmy Lai: What to know about national security trial of Hong Kong media tycoon

By Jessie Pang and James Pomfret

Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai testified this week in court for the first time in a landmark national security trial accusing him of endangering China's national security by colluding with foreign forces.

First arrested under the national security law in August 2020, Lai, 76, has been held in solitary confinment since December 2020. He also faces separate sedition charges linked to his Apple Daily newspaper.

The prosecution has accused Lai of collusion with foreign forces, such as meetings with U.S. officials in Washington during the presidency of Donald Trump, calling for sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The trial is widely seen as a landmark national security case after Beijing imposed sweeping security laws on the Asian financial hub in 2020, following months of pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Lai, a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist Party, is one of the most high profile figures to face prosecution under the law.

Hong Kong's former colonial ruler Britain and the United States have condemned the trial and have called for Lai's immediate release. Hong Kong officials say Lai will receive a fair trial.

WHAT IS THE PROSECUTION'S CASE?

Prosecutor Anthony Chau described Lai as a "radical" and alleged he was at the centre of conspiracies to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material in Apple Daily.

The court heard that one example of Lai's alleged collusion was meetings he held in July 2019 with U.S. President Donald Trump's then vice president Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a time when Hong Kong's mass pro-democracy and pro-democracy protests were intensifying.

In Wednesday's testimony Lai said he had never sought to influence the foreign policy of other countries, such as the United States, towards China and Hong Kong.

"I would not dare to ask the vice president (Pence) to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me," Lai said.

On Thursday Lai said he was against violence and denied seeking to incite hatred against China and Hong Kong authorities in articles he had written.

"All I said in this article was the true reflection of the facts I perceived," Lai said on Friday. "And the true thoughts of my heart, without any sense of hostility or intention to be seditious. And this goes for all my other articles."

He added, "For truth prevails in God's kingdom, and that’s good enough for me."

WHO IS THE PROSECUTION LINKING WITH LAI?

The prosecution listed agents and intermediaries of Lai, including Paul Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defense secretary, James Cunningham, former U.S. consul general to Hong Kong, and Benedict Rogers, founder of the Hong Kong Watch rights group.

Commenting from outside Hong Kong, Cunningham and Rogers said Lai's interactions were normal, legal activity.

Prosecutors also said they had identified a syndicate led by Lai, which they said included activists, his aide, rights campaigners, a Japanese congresswoman and a U.S. financier.

The prosecution case says these people contacted Australia, Britain, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal and the United States, to impose sanctions or take other hostile actions against Hong Kong and China.

Prosecutors described Lai as "the mastermind and financial supporter at the highest level command of the syndicate".

However, Lai said he had never donated any money to political parties overseas or in Taiwan. He added that he had only donated money to U.S. thinktanks and religious groups.

One collusion count accused Lai of links to a group the prosecution named as "Stand With Hong Kong Fight For Freedom" (SWHK), which it said lobbied countries for sanctions on China and Hong Kong.

Mark Simon, Lai's aide and a U.S. citizen, executed his instructions and vetted requests for financial support, according to prosecutors.

But Andy Li, a key prosecution witness linked to SWHK, who had been jailed for seven months in a Chinese prison before the trial, said under cross examination on April 10 that he had never met nor contacted Lai.

He had never received money from Lai, nor from entities he believed associated with him, he added.

Prosecutors also accused Lai of using Apple Daily as a platform to conspire with three of its subsidiaries, six former executives linked to the newspaper, and staff members Mark Simon and others to collude with foreign forces.

Lai, however, said he rarely issued instructions or coverage directions to the newsroom. He denied asking Apple Daily’s former associate publisher Chan Pui-man to compile a "shitlist" of Hong Kong officials who should be sanctioned.

Cheung Kim-hung, the former CEO of Apple Daily's parent company Next Digital, told the court Lai instructed him to call people to join protests in 2019, and push for sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials.

Cheung denied being asked by the police to become a prosecution witness while remanded in custody.